Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Collection: Belarus Records

Background

This database is an indexing of names that appear in the summary translations of documents Miriam Weiner has researched in her 25+ years of research in Belarus and has generously donated to JewishGen.org.

Example of a Summary Translation

The summary translations will typically include:

• Description of the record
• Archival source
• Detailed information about a person (and possibly their family) contained in that record source.

The JewishGen Belarus Research Division has indexed the names that appear in the summary translations from about 50 towns in Belarus. Researchers can search specific surnames and/or specific towns.

Example of Search Screen

The search engine allows one to search by name and/or town. When searching for a specific name it is recommended that you use the “sounds like” feature to include variations on the spelling. The “town” field is a drop-down list where you must choose from the towns in the list. If you leave a field empty, the search results will include all names or towns indexed.

The search results include the surname, given name, father’s name, birth year, description of record, year of the record and town of the record. Note that in some records only the age is given and the birth year was been deduced from the age and year of the record. The total number of search results will display at the bottom of the search results page.

Only 50 search results are displayed at a time. If there are more than 50 search results you will need to click on the “next 50 results” link at the bottom of the page to view the next 50 search results.

More information on the person appearing in the search results will typically be found in the original summary translation. To view the original summary translation click on the link in the summary translation column.

Link to Summary Translation

In addition to the information on the person in the search results, this summary translation contains information on other members of his family as well as the archival information for this record source.

Sample Image of Summary Translation

For some records there will be a link to a scan of the original record image. Clicking on this link will bring up the original record image.

Sample Image of an Original Record

While researchers may not find their family surname in the indexed summary translations, it can be very useful to search through the records for a town to see the variety of records researched by Miriam and the information that is contained in those records. This is a list of the various document types that have been indexed in Miriam’s summary translations for Belarus:

•  Adoption petitions
•  Birth records
•  Burial records
•  Correspondence with city authority
•  Death records
•  Divorce records
•  Draft lists (these are registrations rather than actual military records)
•  Family lists (similar to a census record)
•  Immigration lists
•  Lists of apartment dwellers
•  Lists of electors of rabbi
•  Lists of homeowners
•  Lists of Inhabitants
•  Lists of Jewish men
•  Lists of Jews serving in the military
•  Lists of merchants
•  Lists of midwives
•  Lists of property owners
•  Lists of soldiers
•  Lists of taxpayers
•  Lists of voters
•  Local government records
•  Marriage records
•  Membership lists (usually refers to Jewish organizations, guilds or societies)
•  Military cases of appeal
•  Minutes of Military Board meetings
•  Orphanage records
•  Passport applications
•  Property records
•  Registrations of businesses
•  Revision lists (similar to census records, lists of inhabitants)
•  School records

If there is sufficient interest and funding, JewishGen.org can get record counts for these records (if they exist in your town of interest) and perhaps translate those record. Contact the JewishGen District Coordinator for your town to express an interest in a specific record source:
http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/tools/projects/towns/index.html.

For other questions about this database contact Paul Zoglin (pzoglin@JewishGen.org).

Search the Collection

Please click here to search the Miriam Weiner Belarus Collection.